Achieving PDF/UA and Section 508 compliance
By GREG GARNER In the current marketplace, DocOrigin is among just a few products that can be used to design a document and then produce truly compliant, dynamic PDF/UA forms. The goal is to create documents that are certifiably PDF/UA and Section 508 compliant at the time of document creation. That way, we remove the need to use post-processing resources. A savings in time that could improve the satisfaction of customer requests for PDF/UA documents and a savings in the money it costs to have documents rendered Section 508 compliant by a third-party service. A little over three years ago, Eclipse Corporation recognized a need for PDF generating Form Design software that would be capable of creating a PDF/UA compliant document. This document should be compliant at the time of document creation, automatically. Our research for this goal led us to various consultants and resources that could assist us in understanding the complexities of such a solution. We spoke with companies that provide Section 508 compliance certification such as Braille Works, a Florida company that also provides post PDF document generation services for various companies, state agencies and the Federal Government. The resulting solution, our design software, DocOrigin Design, is used to design the PDF 508 form and document templates such as Cell Phone statements, Bank Statements, Invoices, Purchase Orders, Electric/Gas/Water bills, etc. DocOrigin Design will produce PDF/UA and Section 508 compliant documents tagged to be able to be read aloud via such tools as “JAWS” or “Window Eyes”. Once the form’s design is certified as compliant, each and every PDF document generated for that form will be compliant. Your customers will not have to ask for an accommodation or a compliance document. It will automatically be provided to them. When designing documents or forms, DocOrigin is able to apply PDF/UA tags automatically, so it is possible to have the bulk of the work done automatically. Although with the dynamic nature of documents people are expecting today, no company should just trust the auto-tagging capability of any product on the market at this time. With dynamic, data-driven, real-time documents, you need someone that understands the complexities of PDF 508 documents to apply some percentage of the tags manually. We also recommend you have a trained, skilled person to review and validate the forms or documents, to verify they are ready for production. Referring back to Braille Works, they are qualified to review a document design and certify that it is compliant. To learn more about PDF/UA click here.
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